Pictures!!!

Chelsey is leaving the MTC on Tuesday, so now all letters can be sent to her mission address:

Sister Chelsey Noel Hillman
Ohio Cleveland Mission
2070 W 117 th St
Cleveland, OH 44111

When we get her new address, I will post it.

Sister Chen, Sister Yeo, Sister Rodriquez, Chelsey, Sister Stolworthy(companion), and the two other sisters in the district. The first three are going to Thailand.
Sister Hillman and Mallory Layton, who is going to the Lyons. France mission.

Sister Hillman and Jenna Davis

District with one of the teachers (guy in the white shirt), Brother Jacobs.

District with teachers Brother Nielson (orange tie) and Brother Kaiser (glasses.

2 Districts-Sisters will be serving in Cleveland and the Elders are serving in Florida.

Week Three-Feb 21

Hello again,
It snowed here for the last couple of days as well. It is really fun to take pictues in the snow all bundled up!

The MTC is pretty big but I only see about half of it we take the same route everyday! The Legrande Richards building has 4 floors, the top 2 are the girls residence and the bottom 2 are some of the classrooms for the spanish speaking missionaries. There is a builidng just for the elders and you have to have a key to access any of the residences so sisters would not be able to get into elders which is pretty much common sense. We don't have much time in the morning so I have taken to showering at night which makes for a pretty crazy hair day in the morning. There are about 15 showers for the sisters on each floor and we each have different prep times and a lot of the time we get ready in our rooms in which they have mirrors and outlets. I have 6 beds in my room, though there are only 4 of us.

The food in the cafeteria gives me gas. The lunches are the best. And Elder Nelson was right the lasagna is sooooo goood. Probably my favorite meal!

We write letters during personal time yes, and try to sleep, but there is a lot to plan. I should probably shave my legs during that time today. Thank goodness for tights. They keep me warm.

Our Elders left for Florida today. We woke up at 2:50 a.m. to see them off. I cried. I am super emotional lately I think this mission will be good for me to develop a sensitive side. Since we are not allowed to hug elders we has hand hugs. They don't quite have the same effect but it's a compromise. I will miss them. They were honestly like little brothers to all of us.

We are done teaching our investigators, our last day of regular missionary class got done yesterday, we start VC training tomorrow. We only go up to SLC for a couple of hours and then we will get the rest of the weeks schedule tomorrow. I get another Pday on Friday WOOOHOOO!!! I don't know if I will be able to email but I really hope so. Ill send letters so I can get all the information to you all. I leave next Tuesday at 4:00 a.m. my flight leaves at 7:30 so I will probably call around 6:30 I am hoping we will have enough time! If not I have a lay over in Detroit in which I will try and that is like 11 or something? There are 12 of us flying out together. We are all really close so that will be good. We had in field orientation on Friday and it was such an amazing experience. It would take to long to write it all out but ask me when I get home and I can tell you about it! It made me so excited for the field and also slightly nervous. I feel ready to go though. There is still much I have to learn but we have learned to let the spirit do the talking and all will go well. I have developed a very strong relationship with my Heavenly Father, and my savior Jesus Christ. I love this work. I don't understand when people say missionary work is not for them because if they understood what we were doing out here they would come to realize it is for everyone. I hope you get the chance to go out with dad one day. And all my siblings have a desire to serve with their spouses. I love it.

We got done teaching our investigators Don and Sarah. Don commited to baptism, and Sarah, well she now knows that God loves her and she commited to pray about the Book of Mormon! Don who is a 90 something old guy was my favorite. He broke character at the end of our last lesson and told us how great we did and how he could feel the spirit and how they all loved us. It was sooo good to hear, even though I don't know how true it was. I love the senior couples.

So funny story. We had gym the other day and we decided to leave early so we could have enough time to shower. Well we walk around in just our towel to and from the shower so none of us ever think to bring clothes. We all left the room and hopped in the shower. My companion came in and was like do any of you have a key to the room. uh? no. Turns out we locked ourselves out and we only had a towel. Luckily my companion was dressed but since she had to go to the front desk and she can't leave with out me, and I wasn't going to run across campus in my towel and flip flops. I am pretty sure that is against the hand book. We had to do and exchange with some girls down the hall. So I sat in some random girls dorm half naked while they all sat around and tried to make conversation with me! Awkward. Note to self never leave gym early again. We now take our keys with us when we shower.

Well Times up. I love you all. Thanks for the prayers they are definitely helping. I will write more in my letter!

Love you,Sister Hillman

Week Two Email-Feb 14th, 2012

Whelp it has been almost 2 weeks since I have arrived at the MTC. It is going well, it is kind of stressful and we always have to be somewhere. I am slowly getttin used to the 6:30 -10:30 thing. I actually have come to really love wearing dresses, it feels weird to wear pants on Pday. Most of my clothes are fine, I am going to take a couple of things to alterations so they are longer but for the most part they are good to go. I have seen a lot of cute outfits here, there are about 500 sisters in a group of 2300. Going to the temple is probably on of my favorite parts of the week. Today in honor of Valentines day we did sealings, but missionaries can only stand in as children. No hand holding allowed. We don't do service on pday we have a 70 minute period on Saturday that we clean the downstairs level of our building. I really like my branch, the president is really cool and constantly is telling us to be deeply obedient, my roommates don't seem to understand this. I have been dubbed the rule Natzi, but whatever more blessing for me right. There is about 40 of us in a branch and we have all three meetings but they are spread out, then we have a lot of personal study time. That is done in the classroom.

That is so sad about their dad. They are in my prayers for sure. That is what is glorious about the gospel though, this is only a see ya later.

I don't know what time I leave, I should get my travel plans today, and the rest of our schedule for what is going to happen in SLC. I just know that we get paired up with a companionship, and the teach us how to give tours, explain exhibits, and also how to use preach my gospel in the tours. I am excited to see what it entails.

It sounds like you will have a nice, long, fun trip to Ohio. She will be sooo excited to see grandpa.

So things with my companion are good. She is from Grace, Id, she is a cheerleader and hates to work out, but I get to do exchanges with another sister in my room so we can go do P90X together. I really love my district, I probably said that before but it is even truer now. I feel like I have known them forever. I am going to try to get them on film and then send you my SD card because I have no way to get pictures to you guys unless I print them off. So I will just buy a new one.

Anyway family, I love you sooooo much. Know that I am happy, a little tired, and getting fatter everyday! The spirit here is amazing and I meet people from all over the world, going to all over the world. I have learned how to say hello in Thai and Mandarin and a few other words. Thanks for your support. I hope all is well at home, know that I think of you often but am not by any means home sick. Keep asking questions and I will try to answer them in the emails, but will get to them in letters for sure. Until next week.

Love, Sister Hillman

Week One Email-Feb 7, 2012

Oh how lovely it was to receive an email from you. If you haven't guessed by now my Pday is on Tuesday so look for emails on this day and letters around Thursday. Something I have learned. Missionary work is hard. The first week at the MTC was crazy. My companion entered the same day as me, the same goes for everyone in my district. Like I said there are 12 of us, 5 elders and 4 sisters, the elders are all going to Florida, except one is going to Jamaica, he is also from England so he has a really cool accent. I love listening to him talk not only because of his accent but because he is so deep and genuine in all of his responses. I think I have gained about 5 pounds from the food, it's pretty good but not my favorite.

I do like Sundays and Wednesdays though. ALL YOU CAN EAT ICE CREAM!!! Oh yeah..I sometimes don't make the best food choices on those days. We have Gym time everyday so that is nice, I have been runing and increasing my athletic abilities in the game of four square. Everyone here thinks I am competetive and the Elders said they would no longer go easy on me, but what can I say I am a champion. I of course being older than they, told them to respect their elders (the other kind).

Right now I am teaching 3 investigators, two progressing, and 1 referral. I thought that having a testimony would mean I was able to teach the gospel. That family was very, very incorrect. But I am learning and have come to learn to teach by the spirit. All in good times, everyone keeps telling us "newbs" that it gets better after the first Sunday. Which it did, it was a lovely sabbath, and helped me focus on the reason I am out here. How humbled I feel that the lord is allowing me to go out and preach His word. All of the buildings look the same here so I ofcourse get lost about 20 times a day. No big deal. I will learn. I am slowly getting used to the schedule, I do miss my naps though. We are in our classrom 8M-231 for about 11 hours of the 16 we are awake though. So we pretty much live there.

I see Jenna quite often she lives about 3 doors down from me so I stop by when I get done with class at about 9:30. Mallory is doing well I don't see her as much but every time I do she gives me a large hug. Suprisingly I miss hugs.

I love you all sooooooooooooo much. This gospel is true. There is such a spirit here at the MTC, people smile and say hello to you in their various languages. So wonderful. Know I am doing well and am soo happy about where I am in life.

Time is up. Thanks for your prayers. I love and miss you.

Love,Sister Hillman

p.s. Mom that was a strange question but uh let's say pig